Best Type Of Honey To Get

[Steve123]

Looking to try out Honey when i drink coffee etc, what is the best type to go for? Refined? Any brands or products people are going for in the Uk or possible for Uk'ers to obtain? Wanting to switch to something like honey, being better than plain white sugar, is honey the best/least allergenic or is maple syrup better or others?
I bought some from a local honey seller and not 100% sure if i had an allergenic reaction to it, I can tolerate more foods now a year later, but with RE to the honey, is it a no go? or would refined solve this? Would maple syrup or manuka be better or least allergenic?

In this video Ray talks about how the bees refine it or something, does this mean best to get Raw Organic Honey?

 

[charlie]

I go with raw local honey, when possible. I think Ray said the lighter honey is maybe less allergenic, as apposed to the darker honey. I like to mix it up and have 3 different flavors at this time,mountain wildflower, sourwood and orange blossom.

 

[Amazoniac]

- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf00099a009

"Honey is one of the most complex mixtures of carbohydrates produced in nature. The major carbohydrates in honey are glucose and fructose, which account for 65-75 % of the total soluble solids in honey and 85-95 % of honey carbohydrates (White, 1979). The remaining carbohydrates are a mixture of at least 11 disaccharides (Siddiqui and Furgala, 1967; Siddiqui, 1970; Low and Sporns, 1988), 11 trisaccharides (White and Hoban, 1959; Siddiqui and Furgala, 1968), and several higher oligosaccharides."

"All [current conventional] methods can be utilized to separate and quantitate the major carbohydrates in honey; however, the analysis of the more complex minor carbohydrates has proven much more difficult."

"The vast majority of nectars contain exclusively the sugars glucose, fructose, and sucrose (Baker and Baker, 1983). Research has shown that the minor oligosaccharides in honey arise from the transglucosylation activity of dio- and notdio-glucosidases contributed by honeybees (White and Maher, 1953; Low et al., 1986). These carbohydrases transfer glucose moieties to other carbohydrates during the hydrolysis of sucrose, resulting in the formation of many complex oligosaccharides."​

- Rheology and crystallization kinetics of honey: Present status

"Honey is a solution of various sugars and is frequently supersaturated at normal temperatures with respect to glucose. Glucose and fructose (invert sugars) are the principal sugars in honey, accounting for 33-35% and 38-40% respectively. Fructose content is normally higher than glucose, although some exceptions have been reported (Sanz et al., 1994). These two reducing sugars constitute above 65% (w/w) of honey. The minimum amount of reducing (invert) sugars in honey set by the Australian Food Standards Code is 60% (w/w) (ANZFA, 1998). In addition, there are other minor sugars present in honey, mainly sucrose and maltose, which can vary from 1-5% each. Several trisaccharides and higher oligosaccharides in minor amounts are also present at various proportions in honeys (Swallow and Low, 1990; White, 1978), which are not individually described in this paper. The amount of higher sugars (such as maltose) is reported to increase at the expense of monosaccharides during honey storage, depending on storage conditions. This is caused by two mechanisms: enzyme activity and acid reversion (Crane, 1980)."

"Moisture in honey normally ranges from 16 to 18% (wet basis). The moisture content in various varieties of honey may be as low as 13% (White, 1978) and as high as 29% (Junzheng and Changying, 1998). Honey is an intermediate moisture food with a water activity of about 0.6; therefore, it is self stable for a reasonable period of time. Low water activity and high osmotic environment do not support microbial growth. The fermentation of honey may occur by some osmophilic yeast if the moisture content is high, but honeys with moisture contents less than 18.5% are unlikely to ferment (Chandler et al., 1974). The Australian standard specifies moisture content in honey of not more than 20% (w/w) (ANZFA, 1998)."

"Glucose is the least soluble component of all the sugars of honey and is supersaturated in nearly all honeys (White, 1978). Bonvehi (1989) reported that the coefficient of supersaturation of glucose in honey varies from 1.8 to 2.6. The coefficient of supersaturation is the ratio of concentration of solute (w/w) in water at a given temperature to the concentration of solute in a saturated solution at the same temperature. Under certain conditions glucose in honey crystallizes as glucose-monohydrate form. Crystallization of honey is an undesirable property in handling, processing and marketing (Hanaa et al., 1991). On the other hand, this property might be a desirable for certain purpose such as in the production of creamed honey. Crystallization of honey is a matter of interest for many beekeepers and processors. The reason is that each variety of honey crystallizes differently. Some of them never crystallize, some crystallize very slow, some very quickly, some have fine crystals and some have bigger crystal grains. This has created a handling and processing uncertainties for the honey handlers and processors. In addition, crystallization of honey affects the keeping quality (yeast growth) as the non-crystallized portion will contain a greater amount of water which results from the rejected water from crystals (Wilson and Marvin, 1931). Consequently, the top liquid layer in a container of a crystallized honey will contain more water than the bottom crystallized portion. This makes the top liquid layer vulnerable to yeast growth. Hanaa et al. (1991) also found crystallization of producer honey samples due to moisture loss during storage in plastic containers. It is interesting to note that in normal circumstances, honey does not crystallize in the comb. According to Crane (1980), in the capped cell of the comb, honey crystallization is inhibited due to the fact that the comb provides an environment that is protected from moisture, dust and other contaminants."

"The velocity of crystallization and nucleation, and the types of crystal is obviously influenced by composition and temperature (Lupano, 1997; Bonvehi, 1989; Wilson and Marvin, 1931). Impurities (dust, dirt), air bubbles, pollen grains, the wall of the honey container, contamination with previous glucose crystals present in the collecting containers, and beeswax particles have been reported to influence nucleation of honey (Crane, 1980; Hanaa et al., 1991; White, 1978). According to the stage of growth, honey crystals may be needle shaped, flat plate or star shaped (White, 1978; Dyce, 1978). The flat plate form of the crystals is characteristics of fine granulation, which gives smooth feel to the tongue. At slow crystallization rate many crystals grow from the base of each crystals, forming larger star-shaped masses, which give honey a gritty texture (Dyce, 1978). This type of crystal is observed in jars of liquid honey in supermarket shelves. White (1978) mentioned that the natural crystallization in raw honey is usually fine grained, while heated honey crystallizes slowly and is coarse grained. Additionally, Lupano (1997) also found that honey stored at 20°C produced coarse grain, while that stored at -20°C produced fine-crystals, and a mid temperature range (4-10°C) produced mixed size crystals. This observation indicates that the rate of nucleation and crystal growth is dependent on temperature, with lower temperatures producing smaller crystal sizes due to the limited mobility of the molecules (Lupano, 1997; Wilson and Marvin, 1931)."

"As honey is a complex solution of several sugars, it is difficult to predict the crystallization of glucose in this complex situation. This is due to the fact that the solubility and crystallization are positively or negatively affected by other sugar components."

"There are several artificial methods studied and proposed to stop crystallization of honey. Some of them are storage at freezing temperature (-40°C), heat treatment to dissolve crystals and crystal nuclei, removal of air bubbles, dust and pollen particles by filtration, filling at higher temperatures (>45°C) to avoid air bubbles incorporation during filling, addition of inhibitors such as isobutyric acid and sorbic acid, adjusting the glucose to fructose ratios or the water content (Gupta et aL, 1992; Lupano et aL, 1997; White, 1978; Lower, 1987; Hanaa, 1991). Use of additives are not permitted in various countries (including Australia), hence, heating or blending of various honeys with known composition are some of the common ways to control the crystallization. Heating of honey delays the crystallization, but if seeded they can crystallize in about the same way as freshly extracted honeys (Dyce, 1975)."

"Viscosity is one of the important properties of honey. This property is particularly critical during storage, handling and processing (White, 1978, AssU et aL, 1991). The flow properties of honey are influenced by several factors such as composition, temperature, and amount and size of crystals. One of the predominant factors is the moisture content. In normal circumstances, higher moisture levels result in a reduction in the viscosity. Other factors influencing viscosity of honey are the composition of individual sugars, and the amount and type of colloids present in honey. Honey is basically sugar syrup and the viscosity characteristics can be governed by the molecular chain length of sugars present in the honey. For the same mass fraction, disaccharides contribute to a higher viscosity than monosachharides in a solution system (Chirife and Buera, 1997)."

"Temperature and viscosity of honey influence the crystallization rate. Viscosity of a particular honey is again a function of temperature. In several published reports it has been found that the crystallization rate for honey is maximum at around 10-15°C while the rate is decreased above and below this temperature (White, 1978; Dyce, 1975). Above 30°C, honey crystallization will not occur due to the increased solubility of glucose. The crystallization rate is increased below room temperature due to increased supersaturation of glucose. On lowering temperature, the increase is viscosity counteracts supersaturation effects. At about 10-15°C, the effect of supersaturation is more dominating than the viscosity effect."​

- Fructose And Endotoxin [edwardjedmonds]

Open beeology book , all there

 

[Nicole W.]

Looking to try out Honey when i drink coffee etc, what is the best type to go for? Refined? Any brands or products people are going for in the Uk or possible for Uk'ers to obtain? Wanting to switch to something like honey, being better than plain white sugar, is honey the best/least allergenic or is maple syrup better or others?
I bought some from a local honey seller and not 100% sure if i had an allergenic reaction to it, I can tolerate more foods now a year later, but with RE to the honey, is it a no go? or would refined solve this? Would maple syrup or manuka be better or least allergenic?

In this video Ray talks about how the bees refine it or something, does this mean best to get Raw Organic Honey?

I don’t think you’re supposed to heat raw honey. Apparently, it affects the beneficial enzymes and antioxidants. Additionally, Ayurvedic practioners believes that consuming heated honey causes a toxic state in the body. Not sure if that is true, but I’d err on the side of caution and consume your raw honey at room temperature.

 

[biggirlkisss]

my honey man has to move his crops as it get gmo even raw honey can be gmo. Can't live in bubble just making people aware.

 

[Amazoniac]

One of these days I decided to prepare tea with unprocessed honey and it was unbelievable the amount of fat droplets that surfaced. I knew that it would have some from the honeycomb and perhaps mixed with the unfiltered honey itself, but the amount was surprising, the top was completely covered. After running through a coffee filter, most was retained, but some was still there (light reflect). This waxes must be more difficult to oxidize and might be involved in allergic reactions.

 

[Amazoniac]

- Antibacterial synergic effect of honey from two stingless bees: Scaptotrigona bipunctata Lepeletier, 1836, and S. postica Latreille, 1807

"In this study, we tested a combination of two stingless bee honeys against various bacterial strains. In particular: the antibacterial activity of honeys produced by Scaptotrigona bipunctata (SB) and Scaptotrigona postica (SP) was evaluated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains by agar well diffusion assays, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assessment, construction of growth and viability curves and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)."

"To determine the type of interaction that the SB and SP honeys present when combined, a checkerboard assay was performed. A synergistic antibacterial effect was observed against all bacterial strains when both the SB and the SP honeys were combined. The MIC values of the combination were reduced to 1/4 to 1/32 in relation to the MIC values of each honey alone (Table 3)."

"An evaluation of the kinetics of the honeys’ antibacterial effects against the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) N315 strain was performed by constructing a time-kill curve. We observed a decrease of up to 4 log10 following 4 h of treatment compared with the control, but between treatments, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) (Fig. 1). The treatment combining the honeys shortened the time needed for the elimination of all bacterial cells (Fig. 1)."

"Based on an AWD assay performed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of stingless bee honeys, Chan-Rodríguez et al.[20] and Temaru et al.[21] showed that Gram-positive bacteria may be more sensitive to these honeys compared with Gram-negative bacteria. Similar results were observed in our work for both the SB and the SP honeys, which were shown to be more effective against Gram-positive bacteria. Although the AWD assay is widely used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of honeys, several variables can influence the results[22]."​

 

[Perry Staltic]

Make sure you get honey from a local who actually produces it, and doesn't feed his bees with high fructose corn syrup (as many do). In the US store-bought honey is either imported from China, or mixed with same, which has who knows what in it.

 

[Sefton10]

Any brands or products people are going for in the Uk or possible for Uk'ers to obtain?

I know this is an old thread/request, but just added this to another thread so though I may as well add here too.

Organic Wildflower Honey | Buy Organic Wildflower Honey Online

Organic Wildflower Honey. Buy organic wildflower honey online from Littleover Apiaries, the UK’s leading honey producer and supplier.

www.littleoverapiaries.com